Evan Davis: Fake News and Post Truth

20-11-2017 at 20:00 - 22:00

We regularly hear that we’ve entered an age of fake news and post-truth politics. Purportedly, the entire public sphere has come to be filled with lies and deception. Indeed, events like the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit debate, the Dutch referendum on the association agreement with Ukraine seem to make us doubt whether we can still trust anything we read, hear or see. But do we truly live in an era of false claims and alternative facts? And if so, why has bullshit become such an effective communicative strategy in these times?

This Monday, we will welcome Evan Davis to the SIB. Evan is currently the main presenter of Newsnight on BBC2. Before, he presented the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and worked as the Economics Editor of the BBC. In other words, he is a true expert when it comes to the ins and outs of news and mass media. In 2017, Evan wrote the book Post Truth: Why we have reached Peak Bullshit and what we can do about it, in which he uses behavioural science, economics, psychology and his knowledge of the media to scrutinise the (apparent) recent rise of this phenomenon. In his talk, he will ask whether we should think of the public as gullible, and taken in by bullshit – is it really possible to fool most of the people most of the time? Visit us for this interesting lecture!

This lecture is organised by Dispuut QUE. The event is free and open to everyone.